Home Remedies from Google: Things Learned During Cleanup

1. Blueberry stains on white t-shirt.
Loved the blueberry pancakes, but the berries were so juicy, they skipped the plate and landed several times on my shirt!
Solution: vinegar soak, then pour boiling hot water on it, then rub out the stain with elbow grease and laundry detergent.

2. Blood on cloth.
Pour hydrogen peroxide on it. Blood bubbles right out. Unbelievable!

3. Chocolate on cloth.
Carefully scrape the excess off the cloth (do not rub into the cloth). Flush club soda over it. Gone.

4. Chocolate becoming chunky (cooling) when you need it to be fondu.
A little bit of Canola and boiled water slowly while it was being stirred.  Fondu success!

5. Sediment stains on porcelain (or, BM on toilet bowl!).
Pour baking soda in the bowl, letting it sit overnight. Flush in the morning. Gone (at least the area that had been in direct contact with the water). For the rest above the water line, we attempted vinegar doused on a cloth in contact with the line, but this yielded no noticeable results. Next, we scraped the rest off with a pumice stone, with success.

The Most Expensive Coffee in the World

While we studied French, we met a woman from the Philippines studying with us who familiarized us with this rare, expensive coffee.  According to Amusingplanet.com,

Kopi luwak, the world’s most expensive coffee, is made from a certain variety of wild red coffee beans but only after it has passed through the digestive track of the Asian Palm Civet. The berries which grow in Indonesia and Philippines are eaten by the civet, a weasel-like animal, who likes the berries for their flesh. But they can't digest the inner beans which come out as poop.

Update: For the Thailand version of this, 22 Words just posted about elephant dung coffee selling for $500/pound, about the same that civet-dung-coffee sold for a few years ago.

Ethiopian Staple: Injera

Injera bread is eaten everyday in Ethiopia, and I have even regularly seen kids eat it for part of their breakfast.  Wikipedia's article explains the background, ingredients (Teff grain, etc), and much more.

We have eaten it several times with dishes like Firfir, Shira Wat, and Doro Wat. 

• In Amharic, the English word 'spicy' translates as 'red' so beware of those dark red dishes!  They are truly hot! 
• No utensils, just eat your right hand!
• Below a 12-vegetable (meat fasting) sampler plate on a bed of injera bread.

Macabo and More Macabo...

For lunch today, Macabo (white tuber), Yams (yellow tuber), and Macabo sauce (leaves) with small cuts of beef.

Macabo has a consistency similar to potatoes, though is on the 'drier' side as for texture in the mouth. The taste is rather bland to my taste buds, which makes me very thankful for the tasty sauce and the meat!

NB: Macabo (W. Africa francophone)=Cocoyam (W. Africa anglophone)=Taro (English)

Lunch Today: Jama Jama, Omelettes, and Manioc

For the first time today, we ate as part of our lunch what is called le baton de Manioc, also called Yuca or Cassava, which is a starchy tuberous root made chewy by cooking it some.  According to Wikipedia, Manioc is:

• The 3rd largest source for carbohydrates for meals in the world
• In largest amount of production in the world, from Nigeria
• Classified sweet or bitter depending on level of toxic cyanogenic glucosides
• Produced all over the world, but mainly in the "South"

Food Posts Continue: Kola Nut

Not all of our posts will be about the new foods we eat here, but we just can't resist sharing a few of them...

In keeping with its common usage in Africa to symbolize friendship, with some friends we recently ate some (actually part of 1!) Kola Nut indigenous here, and had trouble sleeping that night due to its high caffeine content.

NB: It was/is used by the Coca-Cola company with its accompanying caffeine.

Our Smoothie Tonight

From local, fresh produce, L-R:
Papaya
Pineapple
Prickly Pear

Fufu and Jama Jama

Last week, we went across the street and enjoyed eating a traditional plate of the Northwest Region, a dish of Fufu, Jama Jama, and Peanut Sauce.

Fufu: doughy pulverized corn
Jama Jama: vegetable plant in Cameroon

Dinner a Week Ago

Homemade (by Elizabeth) French Onion Soup, and a French-made vanilla éclair, the same menu items our Barnabas Support Team had as they met a week ago Sunday!

"Avec Crêpe Day" February 2

February 2nd was national crêpe day here in France.  I re-posted the crêpe-making video on my language learning blog today in honor of "avec crêpe day."

Making Crêpes in France!

The witty video below gives excellent instructions for how to make crêpes.  After having watched the video, I have now successfully made several batches!

The French Chef

We have enjoyed watching a couple of Julia Child's "historic" cooking shows (from the 60s and 70s!) that we found on PBS' website recently.  She is increasing our appreciation for the French culture which places a high value on quality cooking and of course presentation, two things my late Grandmother accomplished exquisitely under the tutelage of Julia Child's The French Chef. 

We particularly recommend this video which gives a good view of the French countryside and a glimpse of Julia's kitchen in Provence.

Bon appetit!

Ethiopian Food and GIAL Friends

Thank you Dr. and Mrs. Unseth for the wonderful Ethiopian food a week ago. We especially enjoyed eating without utensils!

We learned/were reminded of several things about Ethiopia at the event: 

• It is 2002 right now in Ethiopia! They use the Alexandrian/Coptic calendar (not Gregorian).
• One of Ethiopia's main churches, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, still teaches monophysitism (Christ had one nature, divine): they claim He did not suffer as a man.
• Lalibela is considered to be the eighth wonder of the world, due to the churches carved out of stone!
• If served less than three courses of coffee in someone's home, you were not treated as a close friend. Coffee (and tea) is huge in Ethiopia!

Update: For some great on-the-ground pictures of Lalibela, check out our friend Jan's blog!

Cameroon + Food + Dallas = African Village Restaurant

With some colleagues yesterday afternoon,  we visited a restaurant in Irving (outside Dallas) owned and run by Cameroonians who happen to be Christians! 

Elizabeth had beef stew with rice ...

And Chris ate goat stew with rice.

A colleague of ours had Tilapia fish, a Cameroonian favorite!